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In the 
PUGET SOUND 
G O'U NT R/Y 







Filbert Growing 

IN THE PUGET SOUND 
COUNTRY 



PRESENTING A TREATISE ON 
THE FILBERT NUT 

By 

A. A. QUARNBERG 

u 




Price Fifty Cents 

Copyright igij 

PUGET MILL CO. 

Walker Building 
SEATTLE, U. S. A. 




JUN -4 \W 

©CI.A4672T7 



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FILBERTS 

For Pleasure and 
Profit 



FOREWORD 

THE object of this booklet is to call attention 
to the pleasure, profit and permanent satis- 
faction to be gained by the growing of Fil- 
bert Nuts in the Puget Sound district of Western 
Washington — especially that territory lying north 
of Seattle, where climatic and other conditions are 
more favorable to their cultivation than in any 
other portion of the United States. 

As owners of a large area of land in this 
locality, the Puget Mill Company undertook in- 
vestigation of the various products derived from 
the soil in countries possessing similar climatic 
conditions, with the intention of introducing here 
the most profitable and best-adapted yields wher- 
ever they might be found. 

With knowledge that the Puget Sound lo- 
cality has a climate virtually identical with much 
of Southern Europe, and with the British Isles, we 
were led to a special analysis of the fruits, nuts and 
other products of commercial success in those por- 
tions of the globe. 



Puget Sound 

America's 

Favored Spot 

for 

Filbert Culture 



Among the many 
financially profitable 
industries of agricul- 
tural life developed 
there we found none so 
conspicuously promi- 
nent in its appealing 
features as the grow- 
ing of Filbert nuts. In 
fact it is difficult to 
find in those countries the small home without the 
beautiful Filbert tree and its generous yield. 

Filbert nuts enter largely into the diet of those 
people who dwell in that portion of the Old World 
(Southern Europe) which under modern explora- 
tion furnishes so much evidence of ancient history 
and undoubtedly the cultivation and use of the 
Filbert and other nuts has been handed down to 
the present generation from prehistoric times when 
human kind were compelled to subsist on what 
Nature provided, not having arrived at a condition 
when man's ingenuity had developed food condi- 
tions such as we enjoy in this day. Indeed, the 
industry of Filbert growing has assumed tremen- 
dous proportions there, and the exportation of 
Filberts to all parts of the world amounts to mil- 
lions of dollars annually. 

With the outbreak of the European war, how- 
ever, the exportation of Filberts to the United 
States and to the Latin- American countries was 



virtually shut off, and the stern law of necessity 
gave rise to a new enterprise in the utilization of 
Filberts, producing from the nut Filbert oil for 
cooking and lighting purposes, and also for the 
making of soap. 

While many attempts have been made to in- 
troduce the growing of Filberts in different parts 
of the United States, it is not until the last quar- 
ter-century that success has been attained on such a 
scale as to warrant plantations for commercial pur- 
poses. Because other parts of the United States 
have lacked the favorable climatic and other con- 
ditions that are so conspicuously present about 
Puget Sound, attempts elsewhere have served but 
to emphasize Puget Sound's adaptability to this 
interesting form of culture. 

But the financial advantages of Filbert grow- 
ing in Western Washington have been so thor- 
oughly tested and demonstrated over a quarter 
century period as to prove in our opinion that 
the man or woman with foresight, by acquiring a 
Filbert orchard now, can look forward to ample 
returns and income not only for this generation, 
but for the second and third generations to come. 
And this takes into account only the partial util- 
ization of the land, for with Filberts may be pro- 
duced other crops and other yields that go to make 
up the intensive cultivation of land foreshadowing 
the "new life of the land." 

Upon the demonstration farm of the Puget 
Mill Company at Alderwood Manor, on the Seat- 




THRIFTY AND PROFITABLE FILBERT ORCHARD WEST OF THE 
CASCADE MOUNTAINS 



tie-Everett interurban electric railway, we have a 
large plantation of Filbert trees of various varie- 
ties. As a member of the horticultural staff at 
that point, we consider ourselves particularly for- 
tunate in having Mr. A. A. Quarnberg, who un- 
doubtedly is regarded as the leading American 
authority on Filbert culture. 

Mr. Quarnberg's province will be to teach and 
assist all those who are interested in this fascinat- 
ing and profitable form of land cultivation. Mr. 
Quarnberg has spent the most useful years of a 
long and singularly seasoned life in developing to 
commercial success the growing of Filberts in the 
State of Washington. 

With an orchard made up of Filbert trees 
from many parts of the world, Mr. Quarnberg has 



standardized Filbert culture into two varieties — 
the Du Chilly and the Barcelona, and for the bene- 
fit of present and prospective Filbert growers Mr. 
Quarnberg has written the following treatise. We 
hope it will not only afford all required information 
and direction in regard to this interesting subject, 
but will point the way to success and independence 
for the many who love Nature, love to watch the 
miracles the soil will produce, and who long for a 
full and complete life that will round itself out in, 
peace and plenty for future years. 



Alderwood 

Manor 

Ruralizes 

the 

City 



Alderwood Manor is ideally 
situated, not only with regard to 
its physical advantages for the 
cultivation of Filberts, but be- 
cause of its location within such 
easy reach of a metropolitan cen- 
ter. Only a matter of minutes 
from the center of Seattle, Al- 
derwood Manor provides a home 
spot of unique attractiveness, with electric lights, 
telephones and the comforts of the city, yet with 
the beauty and charm of the country. The orna- 
mention and utility of the country place, we believe, 
cannot be promoted to greater advantage than by 
the cultivation of the Filbert tree. 

For the man who wants the freedom, the 
health, the wholesome surroundings of the country 
for himself and his family, for the man who real- 
izes that it is not the amount of land he possesses 
but the utilization of that land, Alderwood Manor 
and Filbert culture, under the expert guidance and 



direction of the Alderwood demonstration farm, 
afford a combination of wonderful appeal. 

PUGET MILL COMPANY, 

Walker Building, 

Seattle, Washington. 



h;Q>* : , 





A. A. QUARNBERG 



ONE OF AMERICA'S FOREMOST AUTHORITIES ON THE 
GROWING OF THE FILBERT NUT 



FILBERT GROWING 

By A. A. QUARNBERG 



FOR centuries filbert culture has held a promi- 
nent place among the industries of various 
European and Oriental countries, not only because 
filberts are a desirable food, but also on account of 
their value as an article of export. 

Because of adverse conditions, efforts to grow 
filberts in the eastern sections of the United States 
have been discouraging, resulting in the importa- 
tion of millions of pounds of filberts annually for 
consumption in the United States. 

After twenty-three years of local experience 
the fact is established beyond a doubt that the 
climatic conditions are ideally adapted to filbert 
culture in the Pacific Northwest. 

Here as fine filberts as any ever produced in 
any country have for years been successfully grown 
and it seems certain that filbert growing will de- 
velop into a profitable industry of large commercial 
proportions. 

With practically no filberts produced in the 
eastern, northeastern and southern states, there is a 
ready market in the United States for all the fil- 
berts that can be grown in the Pacific Northwest. 



The favorable climatic conditions for produc- 
tion of filberts in the Pacific Northwest, and espe- 
cially in the Puget Sound region, Washington, are 
a valuable resource well worth developing. 

This article is not intended as a scientific or 
technical work on the filbert, but simply to give 
some practical information, the result of experi- 
ence, concerning European filbert (corylus avel- 
lana), its culture, training, etc., as at present prac- 
ticed in the Pacific Northwest. 

DESCRIPTION 

The word filbert as generally used, designates 
hazel-nuts of commerce. Andrew S. Fuller in his 
"Nut Culturist" says: 

"The common name filbert is from 'fullbeard.' 




BARCELONA FILBERTS IN THE HUSK. 



All varieties with husks extending beyond the nut 
with fringed edges are filberts, while those with 
husks shorter than the nuts are hazels from the old 
Anglo-Saxon word haesel, a hood or bonnet. The 




FILBERT BRANCH IN BLOSSOM 



parentage, size, form, or quality of nut is not to be 
considered in this qualification, for when the nuts 
are ripe and fallen from the husk, there is nothing 
left to distinguish the hazel from the filberts." 

The filbert (corylus) is a deciduous tree or 
shrub of which the fruit is a nut enclosed in a leafy 
lacinated calyx cup or husk. It blooms before the 
leaves appear in the spring. 

The male flowers are visible early in the au- 
tumn and appear in cylindrical catkins which, in the 
Pacific Northwest, remain on the trees till the fol- 
lowing months of January or February before they 
fully develop or scatter their pollen. 



The male flowers are quite conspicuous, but 
the female flowers are very small and entirely 
hidden in the buds until blooming time, and then 
they merely push out their thread-like crimson- 
colored styles at the ex- x^ 
tremities of the buds for 
fertilization. When fertil- 
ized the protruding tops 
of the pistils wither and 
disappear, while the nut- 
bearing parts of the flow- 
er remain intact enclosed 
in the buds awaiting de- 
velopment the following 
summer. 



The nuts vary in shape 
and may be round, oval, 
oblong, conical, etc., and 
often grow in clusters, 
but each nut is enclosed 
in a husk varying in 
length from shorter than 
the nut to lengths extend- 
ing beyond. In most va- pollen-producing catkin, or 
rieties, the extended husk 
opens at the outer edge, 
but in some it rather contracts than opens, and in 
the more contracted forms interfere with the husk- 




MALE FLOWER. ARROW POINTS 

TO FEMALE FLOWER THAT 

IS FERTILIZED 



ing of the nuts. 










**£$, 



HOW THE YOUNG SPROUTS 

CLUSTER ABOUT THE 

BASE OF THE TREE 



PROPAGATION 

The filbert usually de- 
teriorates from the seed, 
and other modes of prop- 
agation must be employed 
for perpetuating and mul- 
tiplying varieties. While 
varieties may be propa- 
gated by budding and 
grafting, the most com- 
mon method practiced 
both in Europe and this 
country, is by sprouts or 







LAYERING THE SHOOTS TO MAKE NEW FILBERT 
TREES BY THE SERPENTINE METHOD 



suckers which the cultivated varieties have a ten- 
dency to throw out from the base of their stems, 
and which are taken up and developed into trees. 

Usually a considerable num- 
ber of rooted sprouts may be 
obtained by banking rich soil 
around the stools during the 
summer to promote root for- 
mation, and long sprouts may 
be layered during the winter 
and become rooted by the fol- 
lowing fall. 

There are several methods of 
layering, but the most common 
is to bend and fasten down the 
sprouts so that the lower por- 
tion is imbedded in earth to 
throw out roots, while the upper 
part is made to grow erect and 
form a new tree. The rooted 
sprouts and layers are sepa- 
rated from the parent tree and 




LAYERED SPROUT SEV- 
ERED FROM PARENT TREE, 
SHOWING ROOT DEVELOP- 
MENT SUMMER AFTER 
LAYERING 



planted in nursery rows about one foot apart, 
where they are allowed to remain and develop into 
the size of trees desired for permanent orchard 
planting. Small trees may be planted into orchard, 
but larger well-rooted trees are more satisfactory. 

LAND AND LOCATION OF 
ORCHARD 

The climate of the Pacific Northwest is favor- 
able for the filbert (in fact in no other portion of 
the United States has the filbert met with success), 
and it will grow on a wide range of land and soil 
even when moderately poor, so long as it is well 
drained and deep enough to supply the necessary 
moisture, for the filbert is a surface feeding plant, 
but it undoubtedly thrives best on moderately deep, 
rich and well drained loam. The air drainage does 
not seem to be so essential with the filbert as with 
other fruits, as it appears to be less liable to frost 
injuries than most other kinds of fruit. 



v -' - 






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ORDINARY NORTHWEST COLD WEATHER DOES 

NOT AFFECT THE FILBERT DURING 

BLOOMING TIME (FEBRUARY) 



PLANTING OF THE ORCHARD 



Filbert trees produce a mass of fiberous roots, 
and transplant well. Fall or early winter is the 
best season for transplanting fil- 
berts, but they may also be planted 
in the spring. Before planting the 
orchard, the land should be thor- 
oughly plowed and harrowed and 
put into good condition. Different 
varieties of filberts differ in growth 
and size of trees and are set from 
ten to twenty feet apart according 
to variety, quality of land, and the 
size they are expected to attain. 
Generally speaking, a distance of 
sixteen feet is considered ample 
and not crowded, for the larger 
European varieties grown in this 
country. The holes for the trees 
should be dug sufficiently large to 
accommodate the roots and the fill- 
ing in of some good top soil, with 

•jy^l^K the settin g of the trees a feW inches 

!S^V"I|P deeper than they are in the nursery 

'**'*"' row. 




NEWLY PLANTED 
FILBERT TREE 



As with most other kinds of fruit, cross-pol- 
lination of filberts is beneficial and with some va- 







NURSERY ROWS OF YOUNG FILBERT TREES, SET OUT ADJOINING 
FILBERT ORCHARD 



rieties, necessary for satisfactory bearing. Some 
varieties are more self-sterile than others, but most 
of them do better mixed than when grown alone. 

Very late blooming varieties will not fertilize 
the early blooming varieties and vice versa. In 
carrying out this idea, it is best to plant the varieties 
with all possible regularity. They would pollinize 
just as well if they were indiscriminately intermin- 
gled, but if it is desired to keep the varieties sepa- 
rate, difficulty would be encountered in the picking. 



CARE AND CULTIVATION 

While the filbert will stand some neglect, it is 
well to bear in mind that it responds readily to 
good treatment, and it pays to give the trees 
good care and keep the land in good cultivation 
and fertility. If the soil is deficient in lime, as 
generally is the case west of the Cascade Moun- 
tains, some should be applied; and unless the land 
is very rich, bearing trees, at least, should bi- 
annually receive a dressing of barnyard manure or 
poultry or other fertilizer. 

Clean cultivation should be practiced in filbert 
orchards, excepting as to cover crops, and for that 
purpose vetches probably give the best results in 
the Northwest. 

Generally speaking filbert trees have in the 
past had but little systematic pruning in the Pa- 
cific Northwest. The trees have done well without 
much pruning and this has fostered a quite general 
opinion that filberts needed but little actual prun- 
ing. But with older trees and the increasing num- 
ber and size of commercial orchards, a standard 
system is recommended. 

Up to this time filbert trees have usually been, 
and probably will continue to be, trained as low 
standard trees headed from one to three feet high. 
Some have been allowed to grow in their natural 
form of several stems, but the one stem or trunk 
form is generally preferred, being more convenient 
for care and cultivation. 






Felix Gillet, the late pioneer promoter of 
filbert culture and one of the most renowned hor- 
ticulturists and authorities on nuts in this country, 
recommended that "filberts be trained as low 
standard trees and branched at 18 to 24 inches 
from the ground and not grown bush-like." 

SHAPING THE TREE 

After a filbert tree 
has been planted, the 
first pruning required 
is to head it to desir- 
able height from 20 
to 30 inches, two feet 
being a good height. 
During the follow- 
ing summer a num- 
ber of shoots will 
grow out near the 
top of the headed 
stem, and from these, 
three or four are se- 
lected and trained to 
form the top of the 
future tree and the 
others removed. For 
the first few years, 
the top requires more 
or less attention in 
way of thinning and 
shortening of strong 
shoots to give the 
tree the proper form 
and balance. 




CATKINS (BLOSSOMS) APPEARING 
ON THE YOUNG FILBERT TREE 




STURDY FILBERT TREES IN WESTERN WASHINGTON ORCHARD 

In the family garden or lawn the filbert might 
be made to branch at three or four feet. Nothing, 
indeed, is prettier than a filbert tree headed at 
that height. Particularly is the purple leaf filbert 
highly ornamental with its original and brilliant 
foliage. 



Unless wanted for propagation purposes, suck- 
ers from the stem and roots should be hoed off in 
growth during the summer, or in winter be severed 
from the tree by pruning shears or other sharp 
cutting tools. 



While the filbert likes a reasonable amount of 
air and sun, it does not require continued sun- 
light as much as most other fruits and succeeds 
well in partial shade. For this reason filberts are 
well adapted for fillers in orchards of walnuts and 
other strong growing fruit trees. In Kent, Eng- 
land, apples and pears frequently form a dense 
cover over the filbert trees and yet they produce, 
but naturally not so freely as those in more open 
quarters. 

In the famous filbert orchards of Kent, the 
trees are trained in the form of a broad, open and 
basin-like top on a short trunk, the top having six 
or more branches which are systematically pruned 
in winter by thinning the spurs, removing old wood 
and shortening strong growths, leaving the trees 
regularly balanced on all sides. 

TIME OF BEARING AND YIELDS 

Filberts are generally early bearers and good 
well-rooted trees usually begin to bear the third 
year from planting, increasing thereafter with the 
age and size of the trees. 

Usually a few pounds of nuts may be ex- 
pected from five-year-old trees, and when the 
orchard is six years old, it begins to pay. With 
proper care it will go on paying from 50 to 100 
years or more. Filbert trees are known to grow 
very old. For matured trees the average yield is 
somewhere between 1,000 and 2,000 pounds of nuts 
per acre. Some orchards, of course, produce more 



in single years, due likely to care and favorable 
conditions during the pollinizing period. 

Frequently good four-year-old trees produce 
four pounds of dried nuts and five-year-old five 
pounds; seven-year-old sometimes 16 pounds, and 







FILBERT TREE COMING INTO BEARING. THIS 
TREE AT FOUR YEARS PRODUCED FOUR POUNDS 

individual eight-year-old trees as much as 33 
pounds, but, as before stated, the growing of the 
filbert is comparatively new here, and with the ex- 



perience of the past as a guide to the care, man- 
agement, pollinization, etc., one may confidently 
look forward to even better average results. 

During the last few years the Northwest 
grown filberts have retailed at prices varying from 
25c to 30c per pound according to variety, size, etc. 
Considering the limited area adapted to filbert 
growing in the United States, and the increasing 
demand, the problem is one of adequate pro- 
duction. 

HARVESTING 

In the Pacific Northwest filberts usually are 
ripe and ready to gather the first part of the 
month of September. They should not be picked 
until ripe, a condition determined by the brownish 
color of the nut, the straw-colored husk and the 
readiness with which the nuts separate from the 
husk. 

The general practice in the gathering of 
filberts is to pick them up from the ground in- 
stead of from the trees. When ripe and given 
time, the nuts will fall to the ground of their own 
accord in most instances, but they usually are 
hurried off the trees to some extent by shaking 
the branches gently before each picking. 

Usually three pickings will gather the crop. 

Nuts with short husk like the Barcelona gen- 
erally roll out of the husk and drop to the ground 
clean, but varieties having long husk, such as Du 
Chilly, require more or less husking to get the 



nuts separated. Machines for husking filberts will 
undoubtedly be perfected and come into general 
use. 

Some varieties such as the Avelines have con- 
stricted husk so tight around the nut that they 
husk with difficulty and are hard to handle in 
larger quantities. 

Filberts are easily dried. When gathered 
they usually are spread on trays and dried in the 
sun or other ventilated place in a few days. In 
wet weather, filberts may be dried artificially in 
ordinary fruit dryers with heat from 75 to 90 
degrees Fahrenheit. Higher heat than 90 degrees 
is liable to break down the oil and damage the 
flavor of the nuts. 

Filberts are not liable to mould, and they 
require no washing or bleaching. 

When dried sufficiently, the test of which is 
brittle meat, the nuts are cleaned and polished in 
a revolving cylinder or other mechanism answer- 
ing the purpose, and after grading they are sacked 
and stored in a cool place ready for the market. 

Filberts are also gathered with the husk and 
sold in the fresh state at remunerative prices. 
For this purpose varieties with long husks are best 
suited, as they keep the nuts from rolling out so 
readily as in the short husk. 



INSECT PESTS AND DISEASES 

On the Pacific Coast filberts are remarkably 
free from insect pests and disease. An aphis or 
j3lant louse sometimes appears on the foliage, but 
outside of dropping some honey dew in the leaves 
and branches, this insect does not seem to do much 
harm to the trees, and but little attention so far 
has been paid to it. 

The hazel bud mite has attacked certain sus- 
ceptible varieties, such as Prolific, Fertile de 
Coutard, Cosford, Princess Royal and others, and 
done considerable damage. Fortunately some of 
our most popular and valuable varieties, such as 
Barcelona and Du Chilly and others, probably by 
reason of difference in the construction of the buds, 
seem to be almost totally immune from the bud mite. 

The blight or fungus disease on the eastern 
American hazel (corylus Americana), which has 
attacked and killed the European filbert wherever 
set out in the eastern and southern states, has never 
been found on the Pacific Coast native hazel 
(corylus rostrata), nor on any of the European 
varieties cultivated in the Pacific Xorthwest. 

VARIETIES 

An important point in planting filberts is the 
selection and assembling of varieties. As none of 
the native American hazels have developed any 
varieties worthy of naming, propagating, or grow- 
ing in a commercial way, we must look to the 
foreign species for selections and cultivation. 



Of all the varieties now tested out, the Barce- 
lona and Du Chilly are the best and most desirable 
market varieties of which trees in larger numbers 
may be obtained for planting at the present time. 



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THE BARCELONA FILBERT IN THE HUSK 
AND READY FOR MARKET (FULL SIZE) 



SOME OF THE 

MOST 

COMMON 

VARIETIES 

Barcelona: A 
magnificent variety 
from Spain; nut very 
large, round and of 
first quality; shell 
moderately thick; 
strong grower and 
very prolific. Intro- 
duced by Felix Gillet 
about 47 years ago. 
One of the best and 
most popular varie- 
ties for planting. 

Du Chilly : A 
fine, large, elongated 
oval variety with 
moderately thin shell ; 
nuts uniformly 




THE DU CHILLY FILBERT IN THE HUSK AND AS IT LOOKS READY 
FOR MARKET (FULL SIZE) 



large, full-fleshed and sweet. The largest nut 
grown in America, as far as known, over an inch 
in length and three-fourths of an inch in width; 
husk longer than the nut; strong, symmetrical 
grower. Introduced by Felix Gillet about the 
same time as Barcelona. One of the very best 
varieties. 

Algiers : Nut much like Barcelona, but some- 
what smaller, good bearer. 

Kentish Cob : Large fruited cob-nut, a good 
deal like Du Chilly; much grown in England. 

Nottingham: Nut medium, oval shaped, 
good flavored, shell thin, kernel full and fine flav- 
ored. A very pretty nut. 

Montebello: Nut medium, roundish, full 
kernel, good flavored, very prolific. 

Nos Lunghe: A beautiful variety; nut 
large, shell thick, kernel sweet and good flavored; 
husk long and slightly constricted preventing the 
nut from rolling out. 

Pearson's Prolific (Grandis) : Nut large, 
short, good quality, thick shell, short husk, con- 
sidered the true Barcelona nut of commerce. 

Merville de Bolwiller: Nut large, round 
at the base tapering to a point, fine flavor. 

Red and White Aveline: Nuts medium, 
ovate; long constricted husk; kernel with either 



wine-colored or white skin, hence the name — Red 
and White Aveline; flavor sweet and good; very 
prolific. Trees are not strong growers. 

Purple-Leaved Aveline: A very pretty, 
ornamental variety, the leaf being of a dark pur- 
plish hue, looks beautiful. The nut is like other 
Avelines. 

Many other varieties of more or less value 
might be mentioned, but with the difficulty of ob- 
taining trees for planting it would be of but little 
practical use. 

USES OF FILBERTS 

The chief uses of filberts are as food, mainly 
for desserts and confectionery. They may also be 
converted into a valuable oil, which doubtless when 
more are grown will become an article of commerce. 

The filbert is not known and appreciated as it 
deserves to be. The Northwest grown filberts cer- 
tainly are excellent nuts, mild and fine in flavor, 
and the more familiar the people become with them, 
the better they will like them and the larger will 
be their consumption, not to mention the fact that 
the use of nuts generally is increasing and in many 
cases taking the place of meat in dietary. Consid- 
ering the limited area adapted to filbert growing, 
there is no danger of over-production. 

PERSONAL EXPERIENCE 

My attention was first drawn to filberts by an 
article on filbert culture in America, written by 



Prof. H. E. Van Deman about 24 years ago. 
Prof. Van Deman organized and was the first head 
of the division of pomology in the department of 
agriculture, Washington, D. C, and he served as a 
judge of exhibitions of nuts and fruit in prac- 
tically every state in the Union and at all the na- 
tional expositions since 1876 to the time of his 
death, in 1915. 

In this article Mr. Van Deman described the 
almost universal failures to grow filberts in va- 
rious eastern and southern states and ended by 
saying, that before giving up all hopes of grow- 
ing filberts in the United States, they should be 
tried in the territory about Puget Sound, Wash- 
ington, where the climate is similar to that of Kent, 
England, famous for its fine filbert orchards. 

Being of an experimental mind, I sent to 
Felix Gillet for a few trial filbert trees in Feb- 
ruary, 1894, and planted them in Western Wash- 
ington. Among these were two Du Chilly trees, 
which proved to be the first trees of that variety 
brought to the Northwest. In later years I have 
added other varieties, including the valuable Bar- 
celona, and the development and fruiting of these 
experimental trees were closely watched. 

While my plantings were limited, the indica- 
tions plainly showed the climate to be highly favor- 
able to the development of the trees and at the 
same time the yield and quality of the nuts of some 
varieties proved decidedly encouraging. 






In 1908, I had tested out about ten varieties, 
more or less, with differing results; many for vari- 
ous reasons proved unsatisfactory and disappoint- 
ing, while Barcelona and Du Chilly indicated great 
possibilities for filbert culture in the Pacific North- 
west. 

Numerous small plantings of filberts had also 
been made in various parts of the Northwest with 
similar results. It became evident that upon the 
selection and assembling of the right varieties, 
depended the success or failure of growing filberts 
in the Northwest. With the limited filbert growing 
in the East, but little information on the subject 
of varieties could be obtained outside the experi- 
ence and recommendations of the late Felix Gillet 
of Nevada City, California, from whose importa- 
tions and distributions the most of the desirable 
varieties of filberts now grown in the Pacific North- 
west may be traced. 

For the purpose of determining the relative 
commercial value of the various varieties grown 
in other filbert producing countries and their adap- 
tability to the conditions existing in the Pacific 
Northwest, I then began to assemble my now 
large collection of filberts, which in 1916 numbered 
about four dozen different varieties from most of 
the filbert growing countries of the world. 

About 25 varieties have now been quite well 
tested out, and while I have some very promising 
other varieties, I think Barcelona and Du Chilly 
so far are unsurpassed for commercial planting. 



CONCLUSION 

In conclusion I will say the filbert culture is 
fascinating; it combines pleasure and profit. Fil- 
berts are not perishable and do not require an im- 
mediate market, and with practically none pro- 
duced in the East, and with an ever-growing de- 
mand there is a ready market for all the filberts 
that may be produced in the Northwest for years 
to come. 

To me no other horticultural industry looks 
more promising than filbert culture in the Pacific 
Northwest, and particularly in the Puget Sound 
region, especially north of Seattle, where the 
weather conditions are so favorable, the bearing 
of certain varieties is good and regular, and the 
size and quality of the nuts are not surpassed in 
any country. 




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